Delayed Reaction: Memphis Belle

The Pitch: A WWII movie about an Air Force crew on their last mission. We'll keep costs down with stock footage and a lot of scenes on the plane.

How I Came Into It: It had Rudy and that's all I knew. I figured Memphis Belle was the name of a boat (granted, I come from the Louisville perspective with the Belle of Louisville being a thing).

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) I appreciate what they tried to do in the movie. There's the limited perspective of being on the Memphis Belle in the air for a lot of the movie. Those close confines are very intimate and deepen a story that is largely a checklist of cliches. The whole crew of the ship gives solid performances. I was legitimately nervous when they were trying to land at the end. The Perfect Storm has ruined me for movies based on true stories when I don't know the fate of the people in real life beforehand.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: Just because I appreciated what they were trying to do, doesn't mean I thought they were successful at it. So much of the movie happens on the Memphis Belle during the last mission, but most of it is pretty dead. There's a reason why Top Gun focused a lot on the planes externally. Inside the plane (a bomber no less) is pretty boring. It doesn't help that I couldn't tell any of the characters apart. I don't know if it was because they all looked the same or simply didn't have enough characterization, but I spent most of the time being like "that's Rudy" or "that's Jimmy Cooper". I couldn't tell you a single difference between them.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend